The BBC has confirmed that a number of previously lost, early episodes of
Doctor Who have been uncovered

After months of speculation, the BBC has confirmed that a number of early episodes of Doctor Who, which were thought to be lost, have been recovered.

They have not, however, revealed which episodes have been found, and will make an announcement at a press conference in London on Thursday.

A total of 106 episodes starring William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton as the first two incarnations of the Doctor are currently missing from the BBC archives. In the the Sixties and Seventies the Corporation would regularly wipe and reuse the tapes to save money or they suffered from poor storage conditions and, as a result, many of the early Doctor Who episodes are lost, possibly for ever.

It was fairly common, however, for copies to be transferred to film and sold to foreign broadcasters and, in the past, previously lost episodes have been discovered this way. All four instalments of the 1967 adventure The Tomb of the Cybermen, starring Patrick Troughton, were discovered in Hong Kong in 1991.

Rumours – which currently remain unsubstantiated – say that the missing episodes have been found in Ethiopia or Sierra Leone, but we will have to wait until the press conference to learn what the BBC has really discovered and how they will be made available for fans to watch.